1. Field of the Subject Disclosure
The subject disclosure relates to user presence in communications networks. More specifically the subject disclosure relates to determining presence based on an aggregation of presence detections.
2. Background of the Subject Disclosure
Mobile devices, such as cellular telephones, have become a common tool of everyday life. Cellular telephones are no longer used simply to place telephone calls. With the number of available features rapidly increasing, cellular telephones are now used for storing addresses, keeping a calendar, reading e-mails, drafting documents, etc. These devices are small enough that they can be carried in a pocket or purse all day, allowing a user to stay in contact almost anywhere. Recent devices have become highly functional, providing applications useful to business professionals as well as the casual user.
Carrying a mobile device everywhere brings with it an expectation that the user is in constant contact at all times. However, this is not always desirable. Further, a user may carry or use multiple devices such as a cellular phone, a plain old telephone (POT), or a computer. The concept of “presence” is therefore introduced as a means for a user to indicate their availability or lack thereof to other users. A presence could include a status of the user such as “available”, “busy”, or “away from desk”, and so on.
Presence information can further be used to provide users with a variety of services. For example, in a Find-Me-Follow-Me service, a user can be reached for a voice call with his mobile telephone, office telephone, and home telephone from a single number. Early adaptations of this service simply called the user's devices in succession until the user was reached. The user could set a schedule to determine which device to call first. With presence detection, the service knows which device to call, but the presence is detected through an activation or confirmation made by the user. For instance, when the user leaves the office, the user executes a program on the mobile telephone to confirm to the service that the user is now using the mobile telephone.
A variety of methods can enable presence detection and reporting. However, no single method alone may provide the desired presence information correctness for enabling a broad based commercial offering.